Promises Prevail (The Promise Series) (68 page)

He couldn’t tell how she felt about the idea from her tone of voice.

“You’re still too banged up.”

She tipped her head back, her smile as soft as her skin.

“So you did wake me up for no reason.”

“No.”

He eased his thumb between her lips, letting the moisture inside her mouth coat his flesh before sliding his thumb along the full curve of her lower lip, pulling it away from her teeth, teasing himself with the heat of her mouth.

“I woke you up to tell you I love you.”

Air hissed past his thumb, bathing it in a wash of moist warmth as she blinked at him. Both eyes were totally open now, shining deep blue in the dim lamplight. She didn’t say a word, didn’t move, didn’t breathe for three seconds. Then she blinked again, sucked in a staccato breath, and those beautiful eyes began to fill with tears.

“Ah baby, those had better be happy tears.”

Her tongue touched the pad of his finger, sending streaks of need shooting up his arm.

“I’ve waited so long for you to say that.”

“I know.” He caught a teardrop as it shimmered on her cheek. “Too long.”

She shook her head, her hair flowing erotically down over his balls as she asked,

“But why now?”

“Because I realized even if you wanted an out, I’m never going to give it to you.”

She was his own little piece of heaven, his personal treasure, and he could no more give her up than he could give up his soul. “I can’t let you go, Sunshine.”

She frowned. “I don’t want to go.”

He slid his fingers across her cheek, behind her head, keeping his thumb against her lips, needing the contact.

“I’m beginning to believe that now.”

She tucked her elbow under her torso and pushed up. Her flinch cut him to the bone. He’d have to take much better care of her. He supported as much of her weight as he could as she pulled herself higher against him.

“Hold me,” she ordered. He did, groaning as the smooth skin of her inner arm slid over his thigh. Son of a bitch, she tempted him.

“You thought I’d want to leave?” she asked on a sigh of satisfaction as he gave her weight back to her gradually.

She made it sound as if it was the most ludicrous idea that could ever cross a man’s mind.

“Sunshine, as much as you like to think otherwise, beyond a hefty bank account, I’m not much of a prize.

“I decided long ago that you are no judge of people.”

“I beg your pardon?”

He was known far and wide for his ability to scent a lie before it was spoken. She trailed the backs of her fingers up the inside of his thigh.

“You should beg for it, making me wait so long for your heart.”

“You’ve always had my heart.” He tilted his hips forward a bit, giving her better access. “I just didn’t tell you about it.”

She clasped his cock through the blanket of her hair, closing her fingers with that delicacy that was so much a part of her.

“Why?”

He looked down at her plump white hand wrapped in the moonlight-gilded blonde of her hair as it encompassed his cock. She was so pure compared to him. So innocent. He fought back the selfish lust that raced through him.

“I’m not the man you think I am.”

She didn’t look shocked or upset, just patient as she waited for him to elaborate.

“Jack Hennesey didn’t die in that fire.”

Her “I know,” was a bare whisper.

“You do?”

“He slammed the door behind him when he left.” She shuddered and he cupped her cheek, helpless to remove the memory that terrified her. “I knew he wouldn’t be coming back.”

“I killed him.” The stark statement landed hard in the silence. He couldn’t read anything in her slow blink, her stillness.

Finally she asked, “How?”

“I was coming up to check on you—”

“Check on me?”

He shrugged. “Hennesey had been spouting a bunch of nonsense in the saloon.”

She didn’t need to know that the man had suggested that anyone willing to lay out a gold piece could have her.

“And?”

“When I got there, the shack was on fire. Hennesey was outside. There was blood all over him, but not much damage.”

“I told him I was leaving him. He went crazy.”

“Not as crazy as I went when he told me I was too late. That you were dead.” He covered the shaking in his hand by stroking her hair. “I snapped his worthless neck when he tried to stop me and went in after you.”

“He told you I was dead?”

“Yes.” The light had gone out of his world in that second. Even Cougar hadn’t been able to hold him back. He’d needed to see for himself, to touch her one last time, wanting to howl right along with Danny at the thought of her loss.

“And you still came in after me?”

He gave up trying to cover the trembling. He cupped her cheek in his hand, rubbing his thumb over her lips, holding her close, remembering the agony, the searing heat, the despair when he’d entered that inferno, knowing no one could survive that heat, but unable to bear the thought of her soft body turning to ash.

“I couldn’t let you burn.”

“You could have been killed.”

“I wasn’t leaving without you.” He hadn’t thought he’d be leaving at all until Cougar had chopped through the back wall providing an escape route. He hadn’t cared either. He wasn’t letting her leave this world scared and alone.

Jenna’s eyes filled with tears. She touched the scars on his chest.

“I love you.”

He hugged her to him carefully, everything inside of him strained to the breaking point with the most fragile of hopes. “Does this mean you might work up to forgiving me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive.”

There was. A hell of a lot, and he knew it
. “I murdered your first husband.” A God fearing woman like Jenna couldn’t just forget about that.

Her hand on his chest was infinitely soothing. “I know. And he tried to murder me. It might make me a bad person, but I’m glad you came, glad you got me out, but mostly, I’m very, very glad that you took me for yourself. ”

“I used to pray to God to give me the strength to get through every day,” she whispered. “Sometimes, when it was really bad, I’d pray that He’d send an angel to take me away.”

Her finger followed a scar up over his collarbone to press against the pulse in the hollow of his throat.

“He sent me you.”

He pulled back, took a shuddering breath and stroked her temple. “You think I’m an answer to a prayer?”

She shook her head, her hair rustling against his thigh.

“I think you’re a dream come true. A man who sees me for what I am, and loves me anyway.”

He traced the blue vein showing through her pale white skin. She was so fragile and yet so strong. Beautiful and sweet. Everything a man could ever desire. And she loved him. To his dying day, he’d never get over the miracle of that.

“It’s not hard to love perfect.”

“I agree.” She shifted up on his thigh so that her breath misted his cock, her gaze meeting his. “Which is why you shouldn’t have any trouble understanding why I love you.”

He’d never understand why she loved him, but he’d go to his grave humbled by it. “You’re a wonder, Jenna.”

She wrapped her hand back around him, and shook her head, amusement and patience in her gaze, as she corrected him, “We’re wonderful together.”

He touched the corner of her mouth. “I don’t deserve you.”

Her smile was a lush mix of gentleness and passion.

“But you’ll take me anyway?”

He was grateful, not stupid. “Hell, yes!”

She blew a stream of air across the tip of his cock. He jerked as the flickering sensation traveled to his balls, pulling them tight before joining the white-hot bolts of need blazing out from the base of his spine. His drawl was a rough parody of what he wanted as he said, “Sunshine, you’re playing with fire.”

She laughed, flashing those dimples at him, laughing longer when his cock jumped and grew in her hand, running her tongue over her lips as a bead of come welled.

“I like the way you want me,” she whispered with that honesty of hers that drove him crazy. She pumped him gently in her hand, treating him to the silky glide of her hair interspersed with the teasing softness of her skin. “I like the way you let me touch you.” She leaned forward and lapped the bead of moisture from the winking slit, taking a long time to accomplish the job. He knew that she knew what the sight of that delicate pink tongue of hers moving over his cock head did to his insides.

“Witch,” he muttered.

She shook her head and corrected, “Wife,” before taking his seed inside her mouth, closing her eyes and tilting her head back, as if savoring his flavor, smiling as she swallowed.

His heart stopped, reconsidered and then charged to a gallop, thundering in his chest as she opened those eyes and leaned forward again, her expression one of impish determination.

“Sunshine, we agreed, no play tonight.”

She pumped his cock through her hand, working it up and over as she did so until it lay across his thigh, pointing directly at her, throbbing in an agony of anticipation.

“I’m not playing.”

She rested her cheek on his thigh. He moved his hand down to the side of her neck so he could see her expression as she milked him in easy, lazy motions that teased and burned when he wanted to thrust and come. A tiny smile played on her lips as his cock twitched and stretched in a plea that echoed the fire searing under his skin. There was the slightest of tension around her eyes, which from experience he knew meant that she was unsure about something.

“What do you want, baby?”

She blinked and the skin on her cheeks stained dark.

“Haven’t you learned by now that there isn’t anything you could tell me that I don’t want to hear?”

He tested the heat in her cheek with his thumb. She was hot, flushed and hungry. Just the way he liked her. He just didn’t know for what.

“I want to love you,” she whispered, still staring at his cock with that hungry longing.

“How?”

“Slowly.” She touched the tip of her finger to the tip of his shaft. “With my heart.”

“Son of a bitch!” He was in danger of coming from her touch.

Her eyes flashed at him. “You won’t mind?”

“Try me and see.”

She took him at his word, delicately testing him with her tongue. Easing her lips around the tip, sipping at him as if this were a moment she longed to draw out. Savor. As if loving him were the best thing in life. Exactly the way he felt when he had her under him, listening to her whimper in pleasure, knowing no one gave her what he did.

Against the heel of his hand, her jaw pushed as she worked the sensitive head past her teeth, bathing him in liquid heat, welcoming him home.